Civil Rights

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Reel-to-reel: A long-lost Malcolm X speech recovered

I was born just two years before Spike Lee's 1992 biopic about Malcolm X and starting in kindergarten, I have faced the question in an almost endless loop: are you named after him?
History Dept.
By MALCOLM BURNLEY | February 10, 2012

Review: The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2012: Documentary

The films in this program contain some of the most powerful images to be seen on the screen this year.
Powerful images
By PETER KEOUGH | February 10, 2012

End Black History Month

It's that time again! Let's roll out the black history materials and talk about African-Americans as if most people really care about them, during the shortest month of the year.
Diverse-city
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | February 03, 2012

Jonathan Lee is back home, creatively and with his activism

When Jonathan Lee rose from the crowd at the Equality Maine Awards banquet last March to pledge $5000 to the pro-gay marriage effort, it's likely that many people in the room turned their heads in curiosity.
A Maine stalwart returns
By TONY GIAMPETRUZZI | November 04, 2011

Review: Question One

When Joe Fox and James Nubile began work on their documentary, Question One , which covers 2009's gay-marriage battle from inside both camps, they had no idea that Marc Mutty would be such a compelling interviewee.
Documentary goes behind the scenes in Maine's 2009 gay-marriage fight
By DEIRDRE FULTON | October 28, 2011

Trans explosion

When a social movement gets its own high-profile celebrity poster child, you know it must be hot.
Personal narratives drive social change, and vice versa
By LISA BUNKER | October 28, 2011

Speaking with Howard Solomon about his years of LGBT research

When Howard Solomon's name was submitted as a nominee for the Catalyst for Change Award, the highest honor given by the Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine at the University of Southern Maine, the center's board agreed very easily to bestow it upon th
Finding — and preserving — unheard voices
By JEFF INGLIS | October 21, 2011

Review: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

In the era when the Black Panther Party was its most powerful and off-the-pig-threatening and separatist, there was little interest in even conversing with whitey, unless whitey was from somewhere other than the ultra-racist USA.
A collage of privileged documentary moments
By GERALD PEARY | September 30, 2011

A hug beats a nod

Maine may be the whitest state in the country, but it certainly isn't the straightest.
Diverse-city
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | September 16, 2011

Immortalizing Irene: dressed up to clean up, tales of survival, and blowhards

Phillipe had to endure Irene at Casa Diablo South in Newport. No problems at all, save for a titanic poplar limb, whose size had already led P&J to dub it "Johnny Wadd," falling all the way across the circular driveway and nearly taking down the pow
Paging Babe the Blue Ox
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 02, 2011

Review: The Help

As it turns out, according to Tate Taylor's adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's bestseller, the Jim Crow era was not due to centuries of institutionalized racism, but to Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her hang-up about "colored" servants going to
Steel Magnolias version of the civil rights movement
By PETER KEOUGH | August 12, 2011

With the Urban League conference coming next week, Boston's movers and shakers are scrambling to project a progressive racial image

After years of trying to convince groups with large minority membership that the Hub is now a welcoming, friendly destination for African-Americans, this is the first big organization to test the theory.
Showtime for New Boston
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 22, 2011

Bus stopped?

Last week, the Rhode Island chapter of the National Federation of the Blind (NFBRI), sent an email blast to folks around the state, which contained the first two paragraphs of a press release issued by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority on June 3
The proposed RIPTA cuts are totally unacceptable
By RUDY CHEEKS | July 08, 2011

Angry art: ''Rhode Island Blows''

A few months back, openly gay Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox backed away from a same-sex marriage bill, which he believed would not pass, and threw his support behind civil unions.
Design Dept.
By GREG COOK | June 17, 2011

41 years of Pride: It really HAS gotten better

More photos from last year's Pride paradeIt's been 41 years since the first Boston Pride. We take Pride for granted now -- if there are...
By David Eisenberg | June 11, 2011

Review: Dramatic Rep's ambitious Gross Indecency

In the center of Gross Indecency 's simple, book-laden set sits a single green carnation in a crystal vase.
Wilde's trials
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | June 10, 2011

Leveling the playing field

A few observations on Dena Riegel's " Striking Back: Turning Feminist Theory Into a Visceral Rape Deterrent " (April 29).
Letters to the Portland Phoenix Editor, May 20, 2011
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | May 20, 2011

Will the Catholic Church kill gay marriage?

Rhode Island’s gay marriage moment has finally arrived. And the Catholic Church just might kill it.
Inside the high-stakes battle over same-sex nuptials in Rhode Island
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 25, 2011

Anti-diversity is bad for business

As he has done with environmental leaders, Governor Paul LePage needs a forum to hear from Maine immigrant and civil-rights leaders. This is made all the more urgent when one considers his "kiss my butt" sound-bite refusal to meet with the NAACP becaus
Letters to the Portland Editor, January 28, 2011
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | January 28, 2011

LePage's secret bankers

Paul LePage was making national headlines last week for all the wrong reasons: telling the NAACP to "kiss my butt" on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, dismissing the civil-rights organization as a "special interest" he won't be "held hosta
How much the governor really owes, and to which special-interest groups
By COLIN WOODARD | January 21, 2011

Airport upgrades

Air travel choices have evolved.
Hoopleville
By DAVID KISH | December 03, 2010

Why did the liberals help construct our concentration camps for the poor?

Why did middle-class liberals, historically the leaders of compassionate social reform, allow, with nary a peep, the construction of our colossal Prison Complex? Two books, one new and one a few years old, explain why liberals not only went along with
Prison complex
By LANCE TAPLEY | September 10, 2010

Fighting back

Thanks to a federal law that codifies discrimination against same-sex couples, more than 15,000 legally married couples (and an untold number of children) are being denied basic benefits, such as the right to file their taxes jointly, or Social Security
Two cases in federal court here in Massachusetts could help turn the national tide against DOMA
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 04, 2010

Considering Kagan

Elena Kagan, onetime dean of Harvard Law School and current US solicitor general, is a less than perfect candidate to sit on the Supreme Court.
She’s weak on free speech, but doesn’t deserve her ‘Seinfeld moment’
By EDITORIAL | May 14, 2010

Marriage activists get closure, look forward

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree expressed what many in the room were feeling at Equality Maine’s annual dinner celebration on Saturday night: the function room at the Holiday Inn by the Bay on Spring Street elicits “a little bit of PTSD” for Maine’s gay-ri
Moving on
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 02, 2010

Corporate love

Here’s a modest proposal for resolving the problems associated with marriage: Abolish it.
Think how much simpler life would be
By AL DIAMON | April 02, 2010

Policy matters

Identifying and living as a transgender person has intense emotional implications that we touch on in this week's story. But here, as with most social issues, the personal is also political.
A look at the legal landscape
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 26, 2010

Should non-citizens vote?

We Americans know we don't like taxation without representation in our democracy, but should we allow participation without naturalization?
Government Reform
By JEFF INGLIS | February 19, 2010

Building block

Your editorial, “Menino’s Promise,” about Mayor Menino’s inauguration, stated: “He must shelve his reservations about becoming more involved in private development.”
Letters to the Boston editor, January 15, 2010
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | January 15, 2010

Divorce rates are higher in states that ban gay marriage. But why aren't there better stats on gay divorce?

Five and a half years after gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, it is nearly impossible to find reliable figures -- or even unreliable figures...
By Lisa Spinelli | January 12, 2010

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